Re: tags

On 2002-01-23 21:58, "ext Tim Kindberg" <timothy@hpl.hp.com> wrote:


> I'm philosophically opposed to the notion that there is such a thing as
> "the" resource. There are names; there are naming contexts that map names
> to other names or to resources; and there are resources (addressible
> functions). "The" resource that you speak of can only mean "the resource
> that this name maps to in this context".

Whether or not several names, possibly contextual, correspond to the
same "thing" in the universe does not mean that a given name does
not correspond to one and only one thing.

Names may only be valid or interpretable within a given context, but
I do not agree that the same name in different contexts can correspond
to different "things".

One may use a name as a referent in various operations, such as
retrieving information *about* that thing, but that information
retrieved is not *the* thing itself.

A name identifies a resource. A resource may either itself be
retrieved or used as the context or focus of the retrieval of
other resources. I think this distinction is fundamental to
the expected and required behavior of the web and semantic web.

A name cannot in one context identify a resource and then in
some other context directly identify some other resource, even
if the other resource is related in some way to the first.

Patrick


--
               
Patrick Stickler              Phone: +358 50 483 9453
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Nokia Research Center         Email: patrick.stickler@nokia.com